Windows in Time – Travel in Arches National Park
Posted in Family Fun, National Park, Scenery, Southwest, Travel | By Shelley Gillespie | Tags: Photographic Find, Southwest, Travel
Landscape Arch
From Moab, Utah, it is a fairly easy drive to the Park’s visitor center. Allow a very full morning or afternoon or even a day to visit the evocatively named formations. See “Courthouse Towers,” “ Parade of Elephants,” “Three Gossips” and the famous “Landscape Arch.” Landscape Arch looks likes it will fall down any time now, but it might take thousands of years. As recently as 1991, a large segment fell from Landscape Arch and the section left looks very close to fragmenting entirely.
Parade of Elephants
North and South Windows in Arches National Park
The wonderful thing about traveling throughout Arches National Park is that the pathways are easy to access without walking miles and miles. (Delicate Arch is a hike (3 miles), but you can see it from afar.) Many of the paths are less than a mile.
Using your sturdy hiking shoes and boots, take the pathways that lead, in some cases, right up to “doorways” and “windows” that you can pass through. They’re all right there, waiting to be explored – and touched. The photography is breathtaking as you see the clouds framed by the rock openings.
When you’ve finally torn yourself away from viewing the many arches, you’ll know that you’ve seen something memorable.
Another memorable arch
Travel to Arches National Park…if you love seeing breathtaking scenery and don’t want to walk too far. Although the views really are not handicapped accessible, you could still drive near enough to see arches. Be prepared for HOT temperatures in the summer (100 degrees and more)!
Park admission is $10 for a vehicle and is good for 7 days. (If you’ve plans to see many of the national parks – plus BLM land and other national lands, you might want to invest in a National Parks Pass that is good for a year and costs $80. Also, there is a local pass for the parks in the Arches area for $25, good for one year.)
Moab, a great base location from which to see Arches, is a “crunchy granola” kind of town with lots of sports enthusiasts and some fun, one-of-a-kind restaurants.
(Please respect the park and don’t leave anything but footsteps and take anything but pictures – the good hiker’s creed.)
Tomorrow – Come back for Zion National Park…
Tags: Photographic Find, Southwest, Travel